Author: Isla McKetta

Isla was the first content manager at Ookla, working her way up to Sr. Director of Consumer Marketing in her 8+ years with the company.
Ookla Research™ Articles
| January 18, 2017

Which US Airport has the Fastest Internet?

Global Speeds

You may have read our recent coverage of the airports and carriers with the fastest internet during the holidays. But the holidays are behind us and it’s time to get real about the year’s upcoming business trips and vacations to sunny spots. That has us asking, “Which airports have the fastest mobile and Wi-Fi speeds right now?”

We went bigger this time, examining the 20 US airports with the most passenger boardings. Once again we looked at Speedtest data for the four largest carriers: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon as well the airport-sponsored Wi-Fi at each location. We chose to focus on data from the last three months of 2016 because, thankfully, the internet keeps getting faster (except for Wi-Fi at nine of these airports, more on that later). Wi-Fi gets upgraded and carriers are regularly rolling out new technology and capacity at US airports.

Enough methodology already, you want to know who won and how that affects your next wait at the gate.

The fastest connections

You’ve probably noticed that your internet experience varies a little when traveling, but you likely had no idea how much the airports you’ve chosen to fly through affect the mobile internet speeds you’ll achieve. So who’s winning the airport internet game?

Fastest airports (cellular)

If you’re connecting via cellular signal, the difference between the average download speed of 7.25 Mbps at LaGuardia and Detroit’s 45.79 Mbps is the difference between kinda sorta getting through the latest episode of Westworld on your phone and enjoying the full HD video experience on your tablet.

For context, mean mobile speeds in the US during the same period are 21.77 Mbps for download and 8.54 Mbps for upload.

Although San Francisco’s upload speeds are nearly three times as fast as those at JFK, upload speeds at these airports fell into a much narrower band that’s pretty close to the national average. So unless you’re trying to upload all of your vacation photos while waiting for that connecting flight, you’re probably going to have the bandwidth you need no matter where you’re departing from.

Fastest airports (Wi-Fi)

If you’re committed to using airport Wi-Fi, you’ll find an even bigger range of speeds for both download and upload depending on your location. From a dismal 2.71 Mbps average download speed over Atlanta’s Wi-Fi to Denver’s average of 61.74, you could be facing the difference between an audio-only experience and actually being able to distract your weary travel companions with an HD movie.

Interestingly, Wi-Fi uploads are faster than downloads at seven of the airports we surveyed. Atlanta’s uploads are also snail-paced, so you probably want to wait on uploading your Walking Dead Zombie Tour pics until the next leg of your trip, but if you’re in Dallas you’ll have the speed you need to video chat while uploading every photo and video you ever took. Ever.

Airport download speeds (cell vs. Wi-Fi)

You might think cell signals are a lot faster than Wi-Fi. Our data show that when it comes to airports, it’s impossible to guess which type of connection will be faster until you’ve actually arrived. Unless, of course, you have this handy chart:

In seven of the airports we looked at, Wi-Fi easily won the speed race, especially in Denver where Wi-Fi is more than three times faster than cellular service. In fact, Denver’s Wi-Fi is faster than cell or Wi-Fi at any of the other 19 busiest airports. Which is probably a good thing, considering Denver recently invested $2.5 million in their Wi-Fi network.

LaGuardia and Philadelphia’s public Wi-Fi networks were nearly three times faster than their average cell download speed, and in Miami and Seattle, Wi-Fi is nearly twice as fast as cell.

In airports like Charlotte Douglas, JFK and Newark, your internet download speeds are relatively similar on cell or on Wi-Fi.

On average, cellular downloads are the way to go at ten airports. In San Francisco and Orlando, cell was about seven times faster than Wi-Fi while McCarran in Las Vegas and Minneapolis-Saint Paul say cell downloads were about four times faster than airport Wi-Fi.

Fastest carriers

Frequent flyers who are also Verizon subscribers will be pleased to know that Verizon wins at nine out of 20 airports we surveyed for Q4 2016. AT&T takes eight and one airport is tied between Verizon and AT&T. Sprint and T-Mobile each check in at one.

Who has the fastest internet where you’re connecting

The map below breaks down the fastest carrier at each of the 20 busiest airports in the US. You’ll also find that carrier’s download and upload speed.

Though Verizon offers the fastest downloads at the most airports, the company doesn’t dominate any particular area of this map. Instead, Verizon and AT&T vie for fastest at top airports across the US except at those closest to the Great Lakes. In that area, Sprint takes fastest carrier title in Chicago and T-Mobile wins Detroit. In Miami, fastest carrier is really too close to call.

Just because a carrier is fastest in a given airport doesn’t mean that the speeds there are good. AT&T’s 8.69 Mbps at LaGuardia is particularly slow. At eight of the 20 airports we examined (LaGuardia, LAX, Charlotte Douglas, Miami, Phoenix, Newark, Philadelphia and JFK), the speeds offered by fastest carriers AT&T and Verizon are below the US average.

On the other end of the spectrum, T-Mobile’s average download speed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport is more than three times the national average while Verizon’s speed at San Francisco International Airport and Sprint’s showing at O’Hare are more than double that national average. And it’s hard to complain about the 30+ Mbps download speed offered by the fastest carriers at airports in Dallas, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Orlando.

Carriers are improving service

Just because a carrier didn’t win, doesn’t mean their speeds are slow or that they aren’t improving. Now you know who the fastest carriers are today, but who will be fastest a few months or a year from now? We took a look to see which carriers improved their download speed the most at each airport between Q3 and Q4 2016.

As expected, the news is mostly good. Speedtest data shows that in some cases, like O’Hare, Dallas and SeaTac all four carriers boosted their mobile download speed. We’re proud to boast that at SeaTac, our home airport, those percent increases were all in the double digits.

Verizon made an excellent showing with massive improvements at JFK and SeaTac. They were also the most improved carrier at five other airports. AT&T’s improvements at LAX are a bright spot in an otherwise slow airport. AT&T was also most improved at four other airports. T-Mobile demonstrated the biggest improvements at seven airports from Denver to Boston. And Sprint was the most improved carrier at Miami International.

We did see minor dips for individual carriers at some airports. We’d like to keep the emphasis on the winners this time, but we are keeping an eye out to see how those speeds evolve over time.

Wi-Fi gets better (mostly)

At 12 of the 20 busiest airports in the US, Wi-Fi download speed increased when comparing Q4 2016 to Q3 2016. Cheers to JFK for more than doubling their Wi-Fi download speed. Speeds in Denver and Philadelphia continued to improve between Q3 and Q4 of 2016. Because both airports have already invested significantly in their Wi-Fi, what’s good is only getting better. Seattle also gets a shout-out for a strong improvement on an already above average speed.

As needed as some of these improvements are, airports would do well to shoot for a benchmark speed rather than incremental increases. Orlando International, in particular, could benefit from a large investment in Wi-Fi, because although they show the second highest percentage increase, the resulting average download speed still is not at all serviceable for anything beyond basic calls and texts.

And then there are the airports where average Wi-Fi speeds decreased: Detroit Metropolitan, Charlotte Douglas, Logan in Boston, McCarran in Las Vegas, Phoenix Sky Harbor, LAX, Dallas Fort Worth and Chicago’s O’Hare. Whether their existing Wi-Fi systems are reaching their limits or something else went wrong, no one wants to see internet speeds decrease. If Idaho Falls Regional Airport offers 100 Mbps Wi-Fi (and our tests show on average, users were achieving speeds of over 200 Mbps) there’s a path to Wi-Fi success for every airport.

Worth mentioning is the fact that public Wi-Fi is not the only option. For example, Comcast is testing new Xfinity-on-the-Fly lounges in Philadelphia. While we did not include tests over this network in our ratings, they did show an impressive average download speed of 101.37 Mbps. Though we’re reporting on public Wi-Fi networks only, if your airport Wi-Fi isn’t cutting it, try looking for airline-specific networks in lounges.

What this means for you

Now that you know which airports have the fastest internet, it’ll be that much easier to book the most productive business trip or the most frustration-free vacation.

And if you have an extra second during your next layover, please download our app for iOS or Android then take a Speedtest. We’ll tell you how fast your connection is and use that data to create more content like this in the future.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Global Speeds

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| January 9, 2017

When Easy isn’t Enough

Speedtest News

Introducing desktop apps to make using Speedtest faster than ever

Discovering your computer’s internet speed using Speedtest has never taken very long. Open your browser, type in Speedtest.net, then click “Go!” and await your results. Those steps get you pretty quick answers about your download and upload speeds. But we live in a world of text expanders, ordering buttons and digital assistants that seem to anticipate your every question. Who has time for pretty quick?

You want fast. We want fast.

So we created free desktop apps for Mac and Windows to get you the answers you want about your internet — fast. Once you download and install the app, just fire it up and click “Go”. By embedding Speedtest on your desktop (and skipping all that typing), we can save you almost all the effort of figuring out your download and upload speeds. More importantly, we can save you time.

This embedded experience is specifically designed to be fast, clear and easy to use. It’s simply the data you need with the least fuss possible.

Speedtest everywhere

Our mission at Speedtest by Ookla is to make the internet faster by providing data on real-world internet speeds. With over 9 billion tests and counting, we want to meet you where you are — on the web, on your phone and TV, in your browser and now on your desktop.

Download the Speedtest desktop app for Mac or Windows. It’s never been faster or easier to take a Speedtest.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Speedtest News

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| December 14, 2016

6 Quick Tips to Fix Your Family’s Slow Internet

Consumer

If you secretly suspect your parents invited you home to not only see your darling face but also because they’re waiting for you to move the last 12 months of photos from digital camera to computer, you are not alone. Adult children of baby boomers are frequently tasked with tech support and a visit home is the perfect time for your family to capture your attention.

While this may seem like a chore because the internet feels so obvious to you, you’re probably rocking some untapped skills that could save your family a lot of time and frustration. If you want to give your family the gift of faster internet (and maybe show off a little), try this simple DIY home internet audit at the old homestead.

Houston, do we even have a problem?

Before you dive in with fancy fixes and shiny new equipment, it helps to get the lay of the land. Visit Speedtest.net for a free, quick assessment of how fast your parents’ internet speeds actually are. Or, connect to their Wi-Fi and then run our mobile Android or iOS app. The average download speed for the US is just over 50 Mbps for broadband connections. If you’re looking at speeds within 10 Mbps of that, you’re golden. If you’re not, you might have a little work to do. Check out that link above to see more precise city and state averages to find out what’s achievable in your hometown.

Connection type icons

Step 1. Find out what type of service they’re paying for

If your parents’ internet bill says “dial-up” anywhere on it, you’ve just found the source of slow speeds. Infrastructure matters and even the fastest internet service provider (ISP) in the world is limited by the infrastructure your family is connecting with.

Whether you ask your parents to pony up for better service or you decide to pitch in to get them a faster plan, you’re already on the road to improving your family’s connection to the internet.

Step 2. Search out their modem and wireless router

Chances are that your parents have a modem/router combination that’s leased from their ISP. Many, many people do. If this is the case, you’re looking for one device. If not, you’re looking for two that are likely in close proximity to one another.

Whether one device or two, you want a modem and router that are:

  • New(ish). While it is technically possible to use the same modem and/or router for five or more years, it’s a terrible idea if speed is at all a concern. Most modems and/or routers really only have a two- to three-year lifespan, and if your parents have waited longer than that to upgrade their equipment, those devices are probably slowing whatever speeds they are paying for waaaaay down. The latest routers operate on the 802.11ac standard. If your family’s computer is compatible with that, a new router makes a great birthday or holiday gift. Especially if you set it up for them. If you don’t know what to look for, check out PC Mag’s “Best Wireless Routers for 2016.”
  • Centrally located. Your parents’ modem is probably close to where service comes into the house. Or it’s in an office or a closet. The location of the modem doesn’t really matter because it’s just translating the service into something your parents can actually use. What does matter (and this matters A LOT) is where the router is located. If it’s out of range of where your family members actually use their Wi-Fi, they’re likely to suffer from slow speeds and dropped connections. Don’t put a router in a basement closet. That’s where your childhood trophies live. Even if a router is located near the computer, make sure it isn’t obstructed by objects like doors, chimneys or thick plaster walls that might weaken the signal. And if your parents still live in the big family home, consider setting up a wireless repeater for them.
  • Password-protected. Bandwidth matters. And while your parents probably aren’t streaming Netflix while playing a PlayStation game in one room and uploading 1,000 photos at a time in another, if their network isn’t password-protected, they might be inadvertently providing internet to the neighbors. Sharing may be caring, but it’s okay to expect everyone on the street to pay for their own internet. Especially if there’s a bandwidth hog on the block.

Step 3. Check the age of their computers

Computers, tablets and phones are a little like race horses, once they reach a certain age, they’re never again going to set any records for speed (particularly when it comes to supporting modern Wi-Fi standards like 802.11ac). It’s perfectly okay if your family is happy plugging along in a bygone age of internet speeds, but if that were true you wouldn’t be reading this article. If all the devices you come across are of a certain age, it might be time to upgrade at least one to the modern era and designate that laptop or tablet for any internet use that requires speed.

Step 4. “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

You’ve probably heard this line any time you’ve reached out to a tech support professional for anything. That’s because it works! Turning a computer, router or modem off and then back on can sometimes clear up lingering issues present on the network. Simply unplug the power from both the modem and the router. After 60 seconds, plug the modem back in. Give it a minute or two to fully reboot, after which you can plug back in the router. If the internet’s running faster, you’ve already won.

Step 5. If all else fails… Call the ISP

If you’ve gotten this far, you have done an awesome job troubleshooting your family’s internet speed woes. But some things you just can’t fix on your own. So if you’ve discovered slow speeds despite a rocking router in a central location, newish devices and a squatter-free network, it’s time to call in the pros. Take heart that you’ve done your due diligence and see if you can schedule a service window before you skip town.

Step 6. Download the Speedtest app

Congratulations! You’ve probably just improved your family’s internet speeds by leaps and bounds. You’ve certainly made them feel loved. If you want to build on all this good work, download the free Speedtest app for your parents’ Windows and Mac computers. That way they’ll have a quick measure of internet speed to reference the next time they need your help. If your dad’s like mine, he’ll present you with a spreadsheet of results graphed out over time so you can really dig into the data. Yay.

For extra bonus brownie points

If your family is still experiencing internet issues, or if you just want to pay your parents back for the lifetime of free storage they’ve provided for your childhood mementos, go the extra mile with any (or all) of the following tech-y projects:

  1. Uploading and cataloging photos
  2. Installing and running antivirus software
  3. Deleting toolbars
  4. Creating a family email distribution list
  5. Managing passwords
  6. Printing address labels for their holiday cards
  7. Removing cookies
  8. Clearing the cache
  9. Blocking pop-ups

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Consumer
Improve Your Speeds

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| November 7, 2016

Cleveland Wins the World Series… of Mobile Speed

Global Speeds

Cubs fans rejoiced early Thursday morning when Cleveland’s final play landed in Anthony Rizzo’s glove and ended the 108-year curse of the goat. But they might not realize that all of their celebratory tweets, selfies and phone calls may have been interminably delayed if that game had taken place in Chicago.

That’s because Speedtest data shows the one contest Cleveland did win this past week was the battle for the fastest mobile internet speeds.

While neither ball field had amazing speeds (something that won’t surprise you if you’ve tried to connect to the internet at any crowded event), fans at games held in Cleveland were treated to an average download speed nearly twice as fast as those at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.

What’s interesting about results from World Series games is that the average upload speed at Cleveland’s Progressive Field is even faster than the average download speed — something that’s rarely true on mobile networks. Meanwhile, Wrigley Field’s average upload speed was only slightly faster than that in Yan Gomes’s native Brazil. Fans connecting on T-Mobile had a clear advantage in upload speed at both fields, while those using AT&T experienced the slowest connections overall.

For reference, average mobile download speed in the U.S. was 19.61 Mbps in Q1-Q2 2016. Average upload speed was 7.94 Mbps. Chicago’s average download speed was 18.14 Mbps and average upload was 9.56 Mbps, while Cleveland’s average speeds were 20.73 Mbps for downloads and 8.97 Mbps for uploads. That means the download speed at Wrigley Field was less than half Chicago’s average, while the download speed Progressive Field was a little slower than Cleveland’s overall. The Progressive Field upload speed was 75% higher than Cleveland’s average.<

Test stats

Cleveland also triumphed in overall tests taken with 333 Speedtest results at Progressive Field and only 75 at Wrigley. You might also notice the lack of results from Sprint customers at Wrigley. Rapt attention or failure to connect, we decline to speculate. But we can only share the stats we have.

So if you want to help prove your home field, stadium, rink, or court is the faster than your rival’s, download our app for Android or iOS and take a Speedtest at the next game. Tweet your result at us with #Crowdspeed or watch here for our next analysis.

Victory Parade

Fear not faithful Cubs fans, your mobile speeds at Grant Park during Friday’s victory celebration, though slow, were pretty impressive for the seventh largest gathering in human history. The average upload speed was 5.88 Mbps and the average download was 3.42 Mbps.

While those speeds might frustrate a U.S. mobile user on any random day, you were probably so immersed in the glory of your historic victory that you didn’t even notice. We can tell, because only 34 tests were taken.

World Series and to Cleveland fans for winning the World Series of internet speeds! If you want to capture the title of fastest sports venue in America next year for your team, be sure to take a Speedtest at the home games. Between plays and celebratory tweets, of course.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Global Speeds

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| October 6, 2016

Can One Man Change the Internet on a Whole Subcontinent?

Global Speeds

Photo by Michael Faber, used with permission

Mukesh Ambani may have done just that. On September 5, his company, Reliance Jio, launched the world’s largest 4G LTE network in India. Over one billion people, 90% of India’s population, live in the coverage area for what is reported to receive LTE speeds that peak at 135 Mbps. For comparison, the average mobile internet download speed in the US is about 20 Mbps.

Jio’s 4G network reportedly cost $20 billion to build out, and the company is offering special introductory packages including free usage of the network through the end of 2016.

He built it, but did they come?

At least according to our Speedtest data, they sure did. And in droves.

India coverage map

What you’re looking at here is the number of tests taken by Jio users on 4G per month for the first nine months of 2016. The moment where the map is suddenly filled with green? That’s September.

For another way of looking at the data, below is a graph of the number of tests taken on 4G in all of India during 2016. The teal bar represents Jio customers.

The graph above reflects Jio’s launch strategy of releasing to employees and family in January 2016 and then following up with a soft launch three months later.

Is the connection as fast as promised?

It looks like mean download speeds for 4G capable phones actually decreased 23% month-over-month from 11.31 Mbps to 8.77 Mbps, continuing a downward trend for 2016.

One report suggests that the networks are already being “stretched to their breaking point” and facing bandwidth issues when accessing content from outside of India. That shouldn’t affect our data, though, as Speedtest data is gathered using in-country servers. For now it’s safe to say that 135 Mbps is an aspiration rather than a reality for the majority of Jio’s customers as even the top 10% of tests averaged out at 17.77 Mbps in September.

The global impact

One thing’s for certain, shifts in a market as large as India have the power to affect the market worldwide. With over one-sixth of the world’s population and a growing economy, India is a country worth watching. We can’t wait to see what Mukesh Ambani and Jio do next and how other carriers respond.

Wondering about interesting developments with internet speeds in your area? Take a Speedtest. You’ll get an accurate reflection of your individual speeds at that moment, and you’ll help us report what’s happening with internet speeds across the globe.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Global Speeds

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| September 27, 2016

What Does a $200 Wi-Fi Connection Buy You at a Presidential Debate?

Global Speeds

Ars Technica reported that journalists at last night’s presidential debate paid $200 a pop for access to Wi-Fi.

So did they get what they paid for?

According to our data, based on 187 Speedtests run at the event, the speeds were surprisingly good. Laptops were getting download speeds between 250 and 580 Mbps and smartphone and tablet users typically saw results somewhere between 10 and 65 Mbps, with speeds topping out around 100 Mbps. For reference, the average broadband speed in the US was 54.97 Mbps in June and the average mobile speed in the first half of 2016 was 19.61 Mbps.

We saw no successful Speedtests from about 6:15 until 7:30 pm PST. We can’t say if there was an outage due to excessive use or the debate got too good to pause for even a momentary Speedtest.

But $200?

Event Wi-Fi is fraught with logistical challenges of providing access to hundreds of users in a confined space. This kind of internet setup is expensive and it’s not unprecedented for event organizers to pass some of that cost along to attendees. And users had access to internet at the venue for the entire day from setup to teardown. But $200 is a lot to charge an attendee who might already have cellular access on their phone. For comparison, you can usually buy an entire flight’s worth of Wi-Fi for around $30.

Were cheaper alternatives available? Hofstra University reportedly said it was banning rogue access points. That wouldn’t be surprising to anyone who’s ever tried to live tweet at a crowded event, because personal hotspots are a recipe for collective Wi-Fi disaster. Event organizers last night were apparently searching out RF-emitting devices and asking users to turn them off, which has caused the FCC to call for an investigation.

Want an inside look at internet speeds at your next event? Take a Speedtest. We’re on the hunt for interesting clusters of data to share with you as part of our #CrowdSpeed initiative.

Editor’s note: The first version of this article unintentionally omitted information about upload speeds at the event. Laptops saw average upload speeds of 96 Mbps and mobile devices saw 38 Mbps.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Global Speeds

About the Author

Isla McKetta